Magazine - The Green Green Grass of Yesterday

By Editor in Bowls on 17th Feb 2010 11:00

Not so long ago right across Australia, the proud mower would chatter up and down in perfect runs creating a work of art of the closely cropped lawns that would, hours later, be transformed into a battleground of bowlers.

Like Francis Drake before them, the lawn bowlers would gather to cast an eager eye at the angle of cut, the moisture under foot and the craft of the greenkeeper as they sought an advantage offered by the variations of the turf.

Now most of the mowers have gone silent, the greens are still green but the manicured lawn has been replaced by its new age reincarnation - artificial grass. Forged as much by the necessity of ravaging drought across inland Australia, the pampered grass with its insatiable thirst has made way for the more durable and drought proofed plastic variety.

The traditionalists still rub their chins in quiet disapproval at another piece of lawn bowling history that has disappeared like the crisp white and cream uniforms.

When the grass was ripped up at the Loxton Bowling Club at the height of the water shortages, many of those traditionalists threatened a mass walkout if the fake lawn was ever put down.

Now however, the opposite is the case and the artificial turf has a new breed of converts. So much so, the Loxton Bowling Club is about to turn over another of its greens to plastic and the natives couldn't be happier and they are lining up to get a shot at the new surface.

Loxton Bowling Club President, Peter Kimber admitted to Bronwen Wade on 1062 ABC's Riverland Today program he is a traditionalist but says there was no other option but rip up the grass and go to plastic. "When you look at the cost of the water, we really didn't have a choice," he said.

The conversion to plastic however, was not all plain sailing.

"Oh, there was a lot of talk in the clubhouse and a lot of people didn't like what was proposed," Mr Kimber added.

Now eight years on, the Loxton Bowling Club is as strong now as ever before and the bowlers are still happy to have the lawn in front of their title, even if that means the artificial stuff.

Source & More: www.abc.net.au

Read more articles in Bowls, by Editor or from February 2010.